So the exciting thing in Paris at the moment is that it is both Fashion Week and that les Soldes (the twice yearly sales throughout all the stores) are happening right now!

Apparently taking advantage of these chic and cool people being in town, this guy has set himself in what looks like a building under rennovation, over in Le Marais, in a kind of fashion themed art installation.

At first there is nothing unique about this building under scaffolding, but as you get closer you might notice the entire structure is covered with blue collar shirts, hanging neatly in rows. Then you might notice the classical music playing rather loudly, and see it is coming from the main entrance to a dark shop that takes up the ground floor of the building.

As you walk closer you see a sign-in book with a pen to the right, along with a plate with money in it sitting on an old chair to the left. Then you notice several hand-written cardboard signs on the window, and you are suddenly reminded of the people in the metros and streets who might have one such sign asking for help.

Then you notice in the display window in the dark, is a forlorn looking man, sitting on a chair, with his hand held out in the gesture of asking for money. His look seems old-fashioned, like the way people would have dressed in another era. Then in fact there is a second outreached hand nearby - this one is plastic and not attached to a body, and propped up on a small block.

So we can only guess what all of this means. Perhaps it is a commentary on the ability of a person to work and make a living, and the shirts and signs and even the man would be symbolic.

In any case it was interesting to stumble upon this and see people in the streets stopping to look (and some walking by without noticing anything at all!) It is a cool idea to take over a whole building like that, and turn it into an artistic statement, and get people to ponder the meaning of what they are seeing.